The head of ABC Home is shaking up the retail world by embracing sustainable design.

ELLE DECOR: What design trends do you see having lasting value?Paulette Cole: Everyone wants to jump on the green bandwagon, but it's much more than a trend. It's a complete shift in human consciousness that is going to trigger so much innovation in design. People want better-quality products, not throwaways, and they want things that will nurture and sustain them.

ED: How have these educated consumers affected your business?

PC: Five years ago people didn't know much about unhealthy chemicals in household cleaners and weren't so concerned about off-gases being emitted by carpets. Now they recognize these things are bad. At ABC Home we've done lots of homework on making functional furniture and art that doesn't hurt the planet. We have 650 pieces of furniture composed of reclaimed or naturally fallen wood whose harvesting doesn't endanger old-growth forests. You can invest in something that is good for the planet but is also beautiful.

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ED: What are your three must-haves?

PC:Just one -- I must have love!

ED: What is the last place you saw that made you think, I wish I'd done that?

PC: Ashes and Snow, a photography installation by Gregory Colbert displayed in a pavilion by Shigeru Ban. I saw it in New York in 2005.

ED: What's the smartest business decision you ever made? And the worst?

PC: The smartest was coming back to ABC Home in 2003, after being away for three years. And I've learned from all my mistakes, even the biggest ones. Mistakes create who you are.

ED: What is the most essential part of any space you design?

PC: Along with the displays in the New York store, I design stages for lectures, sacred gatherings, and nonprofit benefits for the causes I'm passionate about. They are like the mandala sandpaintings that Buddhist monks put so much energy into making and which blow away in the wind; they're temporary. It's critical to capture and express the essence of the person or the cause you're working for.

"You can invest in something that is good for the planet but is also beautiful"